General structure

The usual period of study for the Würzburg master programme is three semesters. The teaching concept is relatively free. It allows you free disposition and planning, and this has proved successful for many years because students propose their own projects. The two core modules (Project Theory and Project Practice) are basically oriented to your individual proposal. They are your focus of study in each semester. Work on the project is accompanied by a basic academic-research module, corresponding extension courses and a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary elective modules. This ensures that your project has a firm conceptual basis and that your qualification goes beyond classical design training.

Knowledge through design

The modules Project Theory and Project Practice form the core of your studies in all three semesters, but there is an exception in the first semester. Here the module Project Practice is replaced by a course called Design Lab, with the aim of thematic orientation. The Design Lab has a positive side effect for students who received their bachelor’s degree from a different university, because they can get to know potential supervisors, the workshops and internal faculty structures more quickly.
In Project Theory you discuss and analyse your master proposal comprehensively, and determine your first structures, focuses and directions. At the same time you take subjects in the Research Techniques module in the first and/or second semester. This enables you to incorporate aspects of scientific and cultural theory into your project-related considerations.
The Extension Module also offers the areas of Current Technologies, Current Media and Design Analysis and Concepts of Strategic Communication.
We understand theoretical and research questions not just as an unavoidable attendant necessity. They are part of an integrative involvement with your proposed project, as they help you to develop a furthering critical and scientifically grounded means of argumentation.

Interdisciplinary interchange

One aspect that significantly distinguishes our Würzburg master programme from comparable courses of study at other universities is the Elective Interdisciplinary Module. This features relatively high in the overall evaluation of your academic performance. Depending on your project, you attend four different courses at other faculties and universities; you can also take advantage of opportunities offered by non-university research or applied-science institutions. Here you obtain in-depth, sound expertise for your project. You decide on the subject matter. Concentrated interchange with experts from other fields will change or strengthen how you view your own activity. We can say from experience that it will substantially improve the quality of your project

Finish up somewhere new

Parallel zum dritten Semester melden Sie sich zur Masterarbeit an. Die besteht a) aus der praktischen, prototypischen Umsetzung Ihres Themas und b) aus der schriftlichen Ausarbeitung („Thesis“). Beide Ergebnisse stellen Sie den Prüfern am Semesterende im Rahmen einer fakultätsöffentlichen Präsentation vor und verteidigen sie.

During the third semester you register for examination, which consists in a) the practical, prototypical realisation of your project and b) a written thesis. You present both pieces of work to the examiners at the end of the semester in an open faculty meeting and defend them.
Working through a single project for the duration of your course is a challenge in many ways. You learn to focus thematically and structurally in order to achieve the required conceptual depth. You discern the necessity of careful planning. You can use the time flexibility for design experiments – and possibly for the discovery of previously unknown questions and answers. This brings about design contributions that are conceptually and formally forward-looking, problem-defining or even problem-solving. In a trans-disciplinary discourse you take on a new role that will position you and your activity differently in future.